Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 19, 1992 TAG: 9202190255
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALBERTVILLE, FRANCE LENGTH: Long
HOCKEY DECISION FINAL
A BRUTAL CHECK on U.S. hockey player Greg Brown will not get Sweden's Mats Naslund suspended from the Olympic tournament. Officials said Naslund did not intend to hurt Brown.\ A stiff check that put a U.S. hockey player into a hospital and U.S. officials into a rage won't get Sweden's Mats Naslund suspended from the Olympichockey tournament.
But rough play continued Tuesday night when the U.S. team battled its way to a 4-1 victory over France in a quarterfinal game.
Gordon Renwick, vice president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said referee Seppo Makela's judgment that Naslund did not intend to hurt American Greg Brown was the final word.
Brown, released Tuesday after an overnight hospital stay, was "doing fine" and was "up and around," U.S. team doctor Dave Joyner said. Brown has a broken nose, a concussion and a 12-stitch gash above his nose.
"Whether or not he'll be back on Friday [for a semifinal game] will be up to our doctors," U.S. coach Dave Peterson said after Tuesday night's victory over France.
Jan-Ake Edvinsson, IIHF general secretary, said, "We received the referee's report. Naslund got a five-minute penalty and a game penalty. There will be no further action. He will be available to play for Sweden" in today's quarterfinal against Czechoslovakia.
Naslund, known as a gentlemanly player during his eight seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, got a major penalty and a game misconduct for boarding and bloodying the U.S. defenseman 2:04 into Monday night's 3-3 tie in the final preliminary-round game.
Naslund said he didn't intend to hurt Brown, and Renwick said Brown apparently broke his nose when he hit the plexiglass above the boards and suffered the bloody cut when he fell to the ice.
On Tuesday night, the U.S. team won without Brown to earn a semifinal game against the winner of today's game between the Unified Team and Finland. Boasting the best record in the Winter Games, 5-0-1, the U.S. team is one victory short of its first medal since the miracle gold of 1980.
Though not as bloody or brutal as Monday's draw with Sweden, the latest U.S. victory was punctuated by a punch-out at the end between America's Guy Gosselin and France's Antoine Richer. Sticks and fists flew as the benches cleared after the final horn, but order was restored after a few minutes.
Canada, top-seeded in one of the two pools in hockey, narrowly escaped elimination from medals contention when it won a shootout against bottom-seeded Germany. Eric Lindros scored the decisive goal in a 3-2 shootout after a 3-3 tie through overtime, and Sean Burke made the final save to clinch it.
Meanwhile, Italian skiing star Alberto Tomba careened ferociously down the mountain to win his third gold medal in two Winter Olympics.
Black-jawed, dark-eyed and dreaming of Hollywood, Tomba charged into Jean-Claude Killy's hometown in the French Alps and claimed it for Italy:
"Now you can call it Tombaville."
The Italian Alps extended northward Tuesday as Tomba roared down the giant slalom, like a Ferrari tearing through the turns at Monza, for his third gold in two Winter Olympics just after his training partner, Deborah Campagnoni, grabbed the gold in the women's super giant slalom.
The sad tale of Americans Dan Jansen and Eric Flaim ended on the speed skating oval, both going home without the medals they felt sure they would win. They finished far behind gold medalist Olaf Zinke in the 1,000 meters as the German gave his country its 23rd medal - tops in the Games and six shy of the record set by the Soviet Union in 1988.
Jansen looked golden - for 900 meters. He didn't fall as he did in 1988 - he left that to his race opponent - but he fell from contention coming out of the last turn and finished 26th, 2 1/2 seconds behind the winner.
"I was just tired," Jansen said. "My legs were gone, they were like lead."
Jansen, the world record-holder in the 500 meters, said he probably will try again in the 1994 Olympics.
"If it were four years," he said, "it would be tough. We're going to start a family soon and . . . "
A reporter interrupted and asked, "How soon?"
Before Jansen could answer, his wife, Robin, said, "Tonight."
"Boy, talk about pressure," Jansen said.
Speaking of families, Paul and Isabelle Duchesnay are fuming over being told by ice dancing officials to tone down their routine to make it more family-oriented.
The Duchesnays, who settled for the silver in Monday night's competition, said after the sport's officials told them to tone things down, it would have been suicidal not to acquiesce.
"Several high-ranking people told us their impressions, influenced our choice of music and movements, and we were influenced by these people and held back very much," Isabelle said Tuesday. "The program last night was not 100 percent the Duchesnays."
Meanwhile, gold medalists Sergei Ponomarenko and Marina Klimova were letting it all hang out with a sensual, risque routine that featured several unique lifts and carries and ended with an embrace and a passionate kiss.
That routine really served to rub things in.
Paul Duchesnay said the suggestions that they stick to conservative moves went against the grain.
"They want to keep ice dancing as a sport, keep it from being too artistic, theatrical or innovative," he said.
Christopher Dean, their choreographer, called for the abolishment of all the rules governing the sport, an Olympic event since 1976.
In pairs figure skating, couples are required to execute a series of jumps and other moves. In ice dancing, couples must be in unison and stay in contact with one another for most of their routine, but jumps and overhead lifts are prohibited.
"The Duchesnays are right on the border of breaking the rules," said Katsu Hisanaga, figure skating chief for the Japan Skating Federation and a member of the Japanese Olympic Committee. `If you took away the restrictions on lifts and jumps in ice dancing, it would become just like pairs skating. Ice dancing should be based instead on steps."